Call Recording Featured Article

New Survey Reveals Why Most Contact Centers Record Calls

We’re all accustomed (some might say “tired”) of hearing the line that “this call may be recorded for quality monitoring purposes." The disembodied voice says “may be” because many call centers record only a portion of their calls. Inevitably, those recorded calls are being used to sample the quality of employees’ performance. A manager listens, critiques or praises as the case may be, and may even recommend a promotion or a raise. (Or, if the agent’s not so lucky, some remedial training.)

But many contact centers record calls for reasons beyond agent evaluation. Technology today, particularly analytics, have meant that it’s affordable to use those calls to extract a variety of intelligence from them. For other organizations, it’s because they are required to record the calls by law. For still more, it’s about protection from lawsuits.

"Call recording and quality monitoring software used to be geared primarily toward enterprise businesses, and they were the only ones that could really afford to implement it into their environment,” Craig McCue, OrecX vice president of Channel Development, told TMC. “Times have changed significantly and the very same solutions designed for big business are now available to small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs). Built with their unique requirements in mind, these new products are more affordable, much quicker to install and far easier to operate and manage."

OrecX, a call recording solutions provider, recently distilled down the reasons why call centers record calls into one informative graphic, based on feedback from more than 80 industry professionals spanning a variety of job roles, organizations, industries and geographies. Participants were asked for the top reasons they record calls. While “ensure quality service and assess agents” did come out as the number one reason organizations record calls (with 69 percent of respondents choosing it) the other reasons were very informative.

Image courtesy of OrecX (click to enlarge)

In second place, with 56 percent of respondents claiming it, was “dispute resolution, risk management and protection.” Many organizations like to have transactions on file so they can avoid “he said/she said” arguments that could lead to lawsuits. The third reason, with 43 percent, was for “training, coaching and development.” Compliance with rules and regulations came in at 33 percent, followed by order verification at 19 percent.

Interestingly, the numbers are still small when it comes to companies using call recordings to analyze processes, find efficiencies and draw intelligence from customer interactions about what customers want. “Product development ideas” was cited by only 8 percent of respondents, “understanding customer needs” was cited by only 3 percent, and “informed decision making” and “branding/marketing/voice of the customer” were tied with 1 percent.

What this reveals is that there’s still a lot of room in the contact center industry to make the most out of call recordings. Using recorded calls correctly, in conjunction with “big data” programs, companies could go a long way toward better understanding how they are serving their customers and how they could be doing it better. These companies have a treasure trove of data right under their noses…if only they would use it.

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Call recording
for your IP PBX Whatever the size of your organization - from a small professional
corporation to a large enterprise - you chose to deploy a VoIP
communications system for the capital and operational cost savings
and the productivity advantages for your users. Now you are looking
to add a call recording option to your system to either address legal
mandates or increase operational effectiveness.